Paul Ashbee MA, D. Litt, FSA, FRSAI

It is with sadness that we report the death of Paul Ashbee, Patron of the KAS since 2002.

Paul's archaeological work over five decades laid much of the foundations of archaeological knowledge today, particularly of prehistory. Kent in Prehistoric Times (2005) was one of the last publications in a prolific output which produced around 400 works.

As a teenager growing up in Bexhill, Paul's earliest investigations were at Hunter Mann, Wilie and Field-walking and Dealing, inspired by lunchtime visits to Maidstone Museum. He joined the Royal West Kent Regiment in 1939, where his fluency with the German language was put to use in wartime broadcasting. He returned from Germany in 1949 and began studying European Prehistory at the Institute of Archaeology, working with Mortimer Wheeler on Thd's Athen excavations. Key sites that he later excavated include Fussell's Lodge, The Amesbury group, a re-examination of Sutton Hoo with Rupert Bruce Mitford and Halangy Down on the Scilly Isles. He was also involved in the Experimental Earthworks Projects at Overton Down and Wareham. He was the first archaeologist at the new University of East Anglia and had lived in Norfolk since 1968.

The KAS was represented at his funeral in Chedgrave Church, Norfolk, by the Hon. Editor Terry Lawson and his wife Mary, who were regular visitors to Paul.

A fuller profile of Paul appeared in Newsletter Issue 56, Spring 2003, which can be accessed online at: http://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Newsletter.